Organizacja gwardii nadwornej Michała Korybuta Wiśniowieckiego w latach 1669–1673
Organization of the Royal Guard of Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki in the Years 1669–1673

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the article is to analyze the organization of the royal guard of Michał Korybut. The task was to discuss its composition, the size of individual units, and to indicate commanders and changes in the structure of the ruler’s army during his entire reign. Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki, according to the files of the election parliament of 1669, could keep only 1200 military men in his guard, who were paid from the royal and not the state treasury. Financial and political problems affected the organization of the guard, which initially numbered only 600–700 people. However, the king managed to organize his side army in the amount allowed by legal norms. Michał organized a large part of his own guard from the soldiers of his predecessor – Jan Kazimierz. The first unit of side troops with the title of leib guard was an infantry regiment of 400–500 people. First, its commander was Hieronim Augustyn Lubomirski, and from 1670 it was commanded by the Lithuanian pantler Stanisław Kazimierz Radziwiłł. Commanders of the regiment were at the same time commanders of the entire guard. The next military unit was a unit of Trabants expanded around 1671 to a dragoons’ regiment of 300 horses. The court guard also included: a regiment of dragoons on 200 horses, the Hungarian infantry cavalry (probably 100) under the command of Colonel Samuel Powierski, a light cavalry under the command of Captain Aleksander Kłodnicki (100 horses) and a small unit of royal Cossacks that mainly dealt with mail delivery. The guard organized in such a way fulfilled tasks related to the king’s protection, accompanied him during various ceremonies and took part in the wars waged by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After the king’s death, part of his guard was incorporated into the crown army, but it was deprived of the status of a royal guard.

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